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A leader of emergency medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has cautioned his team there aren’t enough tests for the novel coronavirus to cover health providers, “and I do not have a high degree of confidence that this will change soon.”

Dr. Scott Reeves, senior clinical director of emergency medicine, also said the hospital’s Liberty campus “remains contracted" in its surgical schedule. The Liberty campus houses a proton therapy machine, the only one in the Cincinnati region that can provide precise radiation treatment of brain tumors and other cancers.

Dignitaries line up with the ribbon to cut in opening the new proton therapy center at the Liberty campus of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in 2016.(Photo: Provided)

In an email sent at 9:33 p.m. March 15, Reeves urged his colleagues to send any patients needing urgent surgery or subspecialty treatment to “the Base,” or the hospital’s Burnet Avenue home in Corryville.

The email was obtained by The Enquirer. No regional healthcare system, nor the city nor county are reporting how many people have been tested for the new coronavirus in Hamilton County. And local health officials generally are not answering questions about testing.

[ This story is being provided for free to our readers during the new coronavirus outbreak. Consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Enquirer at cincinnati.com/subscribe.]

U.S. News & World Report magazine ranks Cincinnati Children’s Hospital the nation’s third-best pediatric hospital. The system, with 15,000 employees, draws patients from around the nation and the world for treatment in childhood cancer, heart disease and other ailments.

Hospital spokeswoman Libby Coulton said Monday that the Liberty campus was not operating as usual because of cancelation of elective surgeries, not because of any disease concerns. The state has asked hospitals to cancel elective surgeries to keep resources available to more acute cases during the new coronavirus pandemic.

"We are working with authorities to obtain an ongoing supply of COVID-19 tests and will continue to test both patients and staff based on the resources available to us," Coulton wrote Monday in an email. "We have a small number of test kits available and are reserving those for the sickest of patients and will be thoughtfully testing a number of staff who may have had potential exposures."

Reeves' email on virus readiness came at the start of a week in which Ohio hospitals stepped up for the growing prospect of thousands of patients severely or critically ill with COVID-19, the upper-respiratory illness that results from infection from the highly contagious novel coronavirus. There is no treatment or cure for the illness.

Builders have erected a special crane at the Liberty campus of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Butler County in preparation for the scheduled Wednesday arrival of the German-made cyclotron, the critical piece of equipment for a new cancer-fighting tool.(Photo: Provided)

In Ohio, authorities said they believe the virus now is moving quickly and infecting more people through “community spread,” and hospitals are expecting a sharp increase in patient loads.

“The current state of matters is that there is insufficient testing to test ill health providers and provide results in any reasonable amount of time,” Reeves wrote. “This leaves us vulnerable to multiple prolonged absences among providers, even for minor illnesses, and I do not have a high degree of confidence that this will change soon.”

Reeves said the hospital may have to ask for additional shifts, and he asked his team members to sign up “if you can.”

Reeves wrote that the hospital is considering plans for rapid evaluations or respiratory tents but “no formalized operational changes at present.”

Reeves’ email also outlined the levels of personal protective equipment that health care workers need to wear when treating patients. A chief concern among hospital workers has been the supply of fit-tested masks, face screens and coveralls to ward off infection. Reeves’ email said the gowning recommendations come from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

If the patient has no respiratory symptoms – standard precautions..

If the patient has respiratory symptoms but no COVID-19 screen positive or exposure – droplet precautions of a simple mask or goggles.

If the patient has a positive screen for COVID-19 or a known exposure – simple mask, gown, goggles, gloves.

If the patient is sick and needs a high-risk procedure such as intubation – N95 or CAPR masks, goggles, gown, gloves

Reeves also mentioned the four months of the novel coronavirus pandemic have shown that children may get a mild to moderate dose of illness, but few children require critical care.